By Erica Laster  

Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti – Displaced by environmental disaster and ensuing poverty, Haitian women are at risk for rape, sexual slavery, prostitution or worse according to Mesadieu Guylande, a Haitian expert with the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women-Latin America and the Caribbean.  In the 2 months after the earthquake around 230 incidents of rape were tracked among 15 camps in Port Au Prince. 

Human trafficking is defined by the United Nations as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring, or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.” 

Smuggling itself yields a profit of around $1.3 billion annually and will only worsen without the necessary protections.  The United Nations mission in Haiti and Haiti’s current President have been widely criticized for their inability to provide camp security and electricity to decrease the incidents of rape and abduction of young girls and women.   

The young are extremely vulnerable indicates Stephanie Henry, a 28 year old worker in a grassroots women’s group working out of Cersal camp.  “Some of them lost their parents in the earthquake. They have to sell their bodies to get some money to live. It is very sad,” she says in an interview with International Press Service.

Despite training by women in Haitian camps who teach young teens how to defend themselves against attack, these women and young girls will become part of the estimated 250,000 victims falling prey to trafficking each year in Latin America.

Photo Courtesy of (blog.dressingvintage.com) For More Information Please See:

International Press Service – Five Million Women Have Fallen Prey To Trafficking Networks – 22 September 2010

International Press Service – Haitian Women At Increased Risk For Trafficking – 24 September 2010

Washington Post – UN Launches Anti-Rape Campaign In Haiti – 13 September 2010

International Press Service – Haitian Women Struggle To Keep Hope Alive – 20 September 2010

By R. Renee Yaworsky
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WINNIPEG, Canada—For the first time in Manitoba, human trafficking charges have been laid after a young aboriginal woman was forced into prostitution.  Police rescued the victim Monday night after she created a disturbance.

Theresa Peebles, a 38-year-old woman, has been charged with forcible confinement, assault and three counts of human trafficking.  According to Jason Michalyshen, a police spokesman, the 21-year-old victim had recently moved to Winnipeg from northern Manitoba and was quickly befriended by Peebles.  The older woman is said to have stolen the victim’s identification and clothing before confining her against her will, beating her, and forcing her to have sex for money.

“We have a [victim] whose human rights were violated to the extreme,” Michalyshen said.

While she was under Peebles’ control, the younger woman was given meals, shelter, alcohol and illegal drugs.  The money that the victim made performing sex acts was taken by Peebles.

Police became aware of the situation after the victim became intoxicated and began screaming from the roof of the duplex where she was being held.  The fire department responded and rescued her with a ladder.

Grand Chief Ron Evans of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs is convinced that there are many more cases of forced prostitution in the area.  “It’s probably happening more frequently than we are aware,” he said.  He believes that aboriginal females are especially at-risk of being victimized.

Michalyshen expressed hope that this case will make people realize that human trafficking can be closer to home than people assume.  “In this particular case,” he said, “it becomes very localized.  It’s happening in our own backyard.”

Benjamin Perrin, an expert on human trafficking at the University of British Columbia, said he knows of at least 36 similar cases in Canada.  “We can only hope that the young woman who was exploited is getting the help that she needs,” he said, adding that Canada should institute a national action plan and create more safe houses while focusing on education and prevention.

The section of the Criminal Code against human trafficking was added in 2005 and describes traffickers as those who exploit “another person if they cause the victim to provide labour or service for fear of their safety or the safety of someone known to them.”

For more information, please see:

Toronto Sun-Alleged pimp ‘trafficking in persons’-24 September 2010

Winnipeg Free Press-Human trafficking count laid-24 September 2010

CBC News-Winnipeg woman charged with human trafficking-23 September 2010

By Erica Laster

Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados –“We have not yet gotten to the stage where a man or woman will disclose equally, routinely and without abashment, that he or she is HIV positive,” indicates Barbados Prime Minister Freundel Stuart at the commencement of the Caribbean Region Symposium on HIV/AIDS and human rights.  

Caricom News reports that the Cave Hill campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) organized the symposium with support from a variety of organizations, including the Pan Caribbean Partnership Against HIV and AIDS (PANCAP),  UNAIDS, UNDP and AIDS2031.  Stuart proposed an increased desire to understand the AIDS virus and increased legislation for public educational programs to ensure that the rights of those affected by the virus were upheld. With about 20,000 new cases of the AIDS virus appearing in 2008 and 12,000 deaths per year due to the virus, Stuart recognizes that the stigma has only increased.

Citing the European Convention on Human Rights which extended to Caribbean countries as colonies in 1953, Stuart asserts that this instrument neither expressly nor through implication permits discrimination against persons or citizens on the ground of personal illness.

With discrimination an actionable offense, Stuart notes that “the burden of proof will rest on him or her to produce evidence of the legally required standard to support the allegation made.  The decisions of the Courts of Law are, invariably, based on the strength of the evidence adduced at trial.” 

While information about the disease is widespread and readily available, few in the Caribbean choose to discuss the topic, only furthering the stigmatizing affects on those contracting it.  In the Caribbean areas, the main method of transmission of HIV occurs through commercial sex and more than 2% of Caribbean adults have contracted the virus.

For More Information Please Visit:

Caricom News – CARIBBEAN-Regional symposium on HIV/AIDS and human rights – 14 September 2010

Caricom News – HIV and Human Rights to Be Discussed at Regional Symposium – 8 September 2010  

The Barbados Advocate – Human Rights of Persons Living with HIV/AIDS must be protected – 14 Septemeber 2010

By R. Renee Yaworsky
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico—After an attack on two photographers, journalists in Mexico believe that they are defenseless against violent drug cartels, who target the media.  Many point the finger at an ineffective Mexican government that has been unable or unwilling to protect members of the media.

On Wednesday, Luis Carlos Santiago, a 21-year-old photographer, was shot and killed while in his car.  Another photographer with him, Carlos Sanchez, only 18, was severely injured.  Santiago worked for the most popular newspaper in Ciudad Juarez, El Diario de Juarez.  On Thursday, the newspaper published a front-page editorial that lashed out at the Mexican government for its weak response to the bloodshed.

“In a country where authorities have proven their incompetence, where can we ask for justice?” the editorial lamented.  “Who can we complain to for the dangers that journalists face every day?”  The editorial expressed frustration that many murdered journalists’ cases remain unsolved.

In 2008, a different El Diario journalist, Armando Rodriguez, was killed outside his home near the US-Mexico border.  In 2009, a federal agent investigating the murder was killed as well.

A New York-based group, the Committee to Protect Journalists, recently stated that over 22 Mexican journalists have been murdered since December of 2006.  During that period, President Felipe Calderon increased troops and federal police presence in the country in hopes of cracking down on the cartels.  The result, however, has been the opposite of what was expected, and has led to much criticism of the president’s approach.

Drug cartels target journalists in order to silence opposition, and some members of the media have felt threatened enough to quit reporting on the cartels.  El Diario, however, has continued tracking the gangs.

“The truth is,” El Diario’s editorial declared, “there is nothing we can do but keep reporting while feeling totally defenseless.”

A recent report by the Committee to Protect Journalists found “systemic failures that, if left unaddressed, will further erode freedom of expression and the rule of law.  Vital national and international interests are at stake.”

Ciudad Juarez is now one of the most dangerous cities in the world, with over 4,000 people slain in the past two years.

Santiago was the ninth journalist to be killed in Mexico this year.  His co-worker, Sanchez, remains in a serious condition in the hospital.

For more information, please see:

AP-Newspaper: Mexican media defenseless against gangs-17 September 2010

CNN-Mexican journalists shot Thursday may not have been intended targets-17 September 2010

BBC-Mexican newspaper photographers attacked by gunmen-17 September 2010